


Grief is a song that everyone sings

by Anonymous



Series: Toonkind D&D Fics [2]
Category: The First Drafthouse (Toonkind D&D)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coraline (2009) Fusion, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Temporary Character Death, Yeah bois, its coraline au time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:54:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27242254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: The world around them was shattering. Cracks spiderwebbed through the ground. Everyone had been separated. Other Tobias stumbled through broken pieces of earth towards the mansion. He wouldn’t find anything there- the rooms locked or picked bare- safe for a single clawed hand.He picked it up. He thought of Other Engineer’s smile, the way they would hug him sometimes, after those strange attacks that left him breathless- the weight of Other Engineer in his arms- and Other Tobias wanted to cry. He thought of a hand cupping his cheek and replicated the motion with shaky fingers and a torn up hand, the stuffing leaking out. It wasn’t the same.(Or, the one where a family is torn apart and put together, one piece at a time.)
Series: Toonkind D&D Fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989043
Kudos: 1
Collections: Anonymous





	Grief is a song that everyone sings

Other Tobias grieved most.

(Of course he did. He had loved The Other Engineer so very much. That wasn’t to say that none of the others did, that Other Jack didn’t mourn, that Other Primrose didn’t cry, that Other Mersel didn’t pull his hat over his eyes- but in some ways, Other Tobias had been made to love. He was held together by bits of felt and ribbons of emotion, and bereft of one connection he fell apart.)

The world around them was shattering. Cracks spiderwebbed through the ground. Everyone had been separated. Other Tobias stumbled through broken pieces of earth towards the mansion. He wouldn’t find anything there- the rooms locked or picked bare- safe for a single clawed hand.

He picked it up. He thought of Other Engineer’s smile, the way they would hug him sometimes, after those strange attacks that left him breathless- the weight of Other Engineer in his arms- and Other Tobias wanted to cry. He thought of a hand cupping his cheek and replicated the motion with shaky fingers and a torn up hand, the stuffing leaking out. It wasn’t the same.

He didn’t stay in the mansion for long. He ran with the others, as the world fell apart- through the collapsing path the Beldam left behind. The hand he clutched in his burned. When he saw the real world for the first time, he cried.

The Other Engineer was dead, but  _ he _ was still alive.

* * *

Other Jack busied himself with the new world, with Shorts Kid and buttons and learning his way with a needle and thread- but some nights, he pulled out a piece of someone left behind and stared.

The Others weren’t really meant to interact with each other. They knew  _ of _ each other, but they had all been neatly divided between their respective groups. He’d had a little more leeway, built for showing Shorts Kid around, but even then he hadn’t the time to get to know anyone more. Most of the people he’d tumbled out of the door with had been strangers.

The Other Engineer, though. He’d been different. So silly and airheaded and so malleable, that none of the rules the Beldam enforced could stick in their head, and even she couldn’t punish him for it. They had waltzed over invisible lines in the sand like it was nothing. Made to love and entertain, and they  _ had _ . When Other Jack had told the Other Engineer Shorts Kid deserved to be safe, needed to be, he’d helped. 

(And got himself torn apart for it. Other Jack had been too desperate to think back then, but now, sitting on his bed and staring at a pair of button eyes stitched onto blue, he wondered. How much of what had happened could be laid at his feet? How much pain had he inflicted, unknowing- he hadn’t meant to, but did that matter?

When he’d found the piece, scattered amongst the grass surrounding the studio- Other Jack had tugged at his ears and swore that it wouldn’t be for nothing. He’d picked it up with shaking hands and shaking shoulders, and asked, in a voice so feathery and light that even the wind could pick it apart-  _ what did she  _ **_do_ ** _ to you? _ )

Other Jack stared. He put the head away.

* * *

Other Primrose and Mersel had found their pieces together. 

Don’t tell anyone, but when Other Mersel had seen the blue shine that was the Other Engineer’s torn apart torso- he had fallen to his knees. He’d been wary of them, because of how close they were to the Other Mother and Other Tobias, but he’d never wanted  _ this.  _ To be torn apart so brazenly that bits of his essence could be picked out from the soil.

His first thought had been to hide this from Other Primrose, but she stumbled onto a blue lower jaw and rendered that sentiment completely useless. She’d been much more open about her distress. He’d had rubber hose arms wrapping around him, the blue shirt Shorts Kid had given her chafing against his own sleeves. For once, he couldn’t bring himself to worry over whether or not The Other Mother was watching.

They knew- they all knew what death was. They’d been made to prepare for it, to make Shorts Kid want it, to convince them to step into their own grave willingly. The world they were standing on had been built with the broken bodies and tears of children.  _ They  _ had been made with stolen smiles and laughter and love.

But this was different.

(This was the Other Engineer. This was Shorts Kid. This was him, realizing for the first time that the soil was the color of darkened blood. This was her, crying, stuffing still caught between her fingers. The lower jaw hung limply from her right hand.)

When Other Jack came by, his coat was torn and tattered. His ears bent at an unnatural angle. One arm hung limply. He pulled Shorts Kid along by one hand, and he looked at the three of them and seemed to steel himself. If they tried to stop him, they probably could.

(Other Tobias hadn’t been there when they found the pieces. They didn’t tell him, not when he was already falling apart from the grief. He was leaning against the two of them now, colors flashing, and well- it wasn’t a choice. It wasn’t a choice at all.)

All three of them stepped aside. Later, when the Bedlam had been defeated, when Other Mersel carefully began stitching new buttons on Other Primrose’s face, they’d think of the pieces they took with them out of the world. The lower jaw and torso neatly wrapped and tucked away. They’d wonder how they were going to explain it to Other Tobias.

* * *

In the end they all came together. Shorts Kid was responsible. They had held up a blue arm with a sad expression, and all of them had taken out their own piece. It wasn’t enough to piece the Other Engineer back together, but it was a start.

It took them days, pricked fingers and pools of thread and pooling of information, trying to draw upon memories and make it accurate to the very last detail. The real Engineer had helped when he could, providing advice or moral support. Thomas had hugged him at that. Everyone politely looked away as he was hugged back.

When even the pieces weren’t enough, they sacrificed bits of themselves, stuffing and cotton and cloth and string. They had been built off stolen laughter and smiles, but that wasn’t all they were. They never needed to steal from Shorts Kid. Shorts Kid had given them their love and happiness willingly, and that kind of affection was a powerful thing. The bits they gave up held something real, and like recognized like. The stitches held. The patches and oddly colored pieces blended in with blue felt.

(The Other Engineer had loved Shorts Kid after all. It only made sense.)

They waited.

* * *

The Other Engineer woke.

**Author's Note:**

> They say loving something hard enough makes it real.


End file.
